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1.8.5-Sarah1281
Brick!Club 1.8.5 A Suitable Tomb I love how this starts off. “Javert deposited Jean Valjean in the city prison.” It sounds like he’s a bundle of cash or a baby or something. And he proceeds to easily break out just like Rugrats. So when everyone deserted him when they found out (presumably from Javert unless the nuns or doctor were gossips) did they say cruel things while Valjean was being marched to prison? I know they all abandoned him but I don’t really want to think about him having to face that. Suddenly, everyone completely forgot how much they loved him and everything he did just because he was once a convict. How do people even? “To be just” they didn’t know what happened in Arras so perhaps once they knew that he gave himself up voluntarily to save an innocent man they are a little more forgiving. So Valjean has a really frightful name that nobody actually knows but thinks it might start with a B. Yeah, they probably didn’t get it from Javert, then. Doctor, I blame you. The gossip would have taken less time if the people hearing the news would stop repeating everything. But…the gossip is sort of right? “Well! I suspected as much. That man was too good, too perfect, too affected. He refused the cross; he bestowed sous on all the little scamps he came across. I always thought there was some evil history back of all that.” No one really suspected it, of course, but Valjean is doing all of this and trying to be a saint because of his dark past. But I guess they think that he was just pretending to be good to throw people off the track like Javert probably thinks (if he stops to wonder at all) or that it doesn’t matter how much good he does because Toulon means he is a terrible man forever. At least they don’t think he’s an escaped convict and got that part of the story straight. And the fashionably royalist bourgeois think that this should be a lesson to the Bonaparists. What lesson, though? Don’t admit to being one when in a difficult position or you too will have your life ruined and be carted off to jail over petty politics? A lesson that their side is stupid because an ex-convict said ‘emperor’? These people… Three or four people stayed loyal to him which is…actually surprising for Hugo peasants. His portress is one and I’m guessing the others are the nuns. Hopefully the priest as well. His portress is just really bummed by all of this and nearly has a heart attack when Valjean stops by. Wait…there was no one in the house but the nuns and Fantine’s body? She was literally in his house? His infirmary for workers was in his own super small house? The portress was so upset she kept doing her routine waiting for Valjean to come back. And…he does. I wonder what he thinks of all of this. He must know that she’s heard since everyone has heard. Is he surprised that there is at least one person (someone who probably knows him as well as anyone since she sees him every day) who hasn’t abandoned him and still set out the key for him? He just goes home after all of this. Of course he has to but it’s still kind of great. And I guess that answers my question of why Javert knows to go to the hospital and not Valjean’s house: he does go to both since they are the same place. I thought we weren’t going to be calling Valjean anything but Valjean? Apparently we’re calling him M. Madeleine one last time. She nearly screamed because she was not expecting him and not, I think, because he’s a convict. She did have a seizure, or so she said, when she gossiped about it. Well as long as she does the right thing here I suppose that’s okay even by Hugo standards. Kind of creepy she recognizes Valjean’s hand. He just accepts that she hasn’t changed towards him because he has no time and gives her instructions. I love the epic tale of Valjean’s prison escape. He really knows what he’s doing. It’s not even surprising that Valjean knows his portress will guard him better than he will guard himself because he is terrible at taking care of himself. And of not getting caught. His portress, on the other hand, has presumably never been arrested. Yeah, Valjean ‘must have’ had that key taken from him. I have some ideas on how it wasn’t. I wonder how the portress told Simplice Valjean wanted to speak with her and what she thought when all of this was going down. It’s only been three days at this point! So wait…he actively goes out of his way to provide incriminating evidence to help convict him? Valjean! Champmathieu is no longer in any danger this is REALLY not necessary. I love that he apparently stayed for dinner but then took it to go. Aw, Simplice had been crying. And he lets Simplice read the letter. I’m glad that, even though he’s a convict, his money was really used to do what he wanted. Perhaps because Simplice was involved? He doesn’t want to be arrested twice in Fantine’s room and that makes sense. It would seem wrong even if she is past being disturbed. I love how the portress is loudly lying to alert Valjean even as she tries to deny that he’s there. She is one of the few good characters we’ve gotten at this point and she doesn’t even have a name! Poor Javert, torn between his respect for authority and his detective skills. The portress freaked out because obviously Simplice doesn’t lie and Valjean is there but she did lie. She didn’t even have to think much about it because there wasn’t time to do it much. She lied twice. She never lies about anything ever and she saved Valjean. I approve. Go Sister Simplice! And then Javert just leaves which is hilarious. Valjean cleared out an hour later and some random carters who people somehow tracked down and discovered saw Valjean remembered him and told all about him. Oh, Hugo… And Valjean stole a shirt from a dead man because it’s not like he could have used one of his own since he was in his own house or anything. But maybe those would be too fancy and obvious. I disapprove of the cure giving Fantine a crappy grave because she was a prostitute and Valjean a convict but I can’t disapprove of him trying to save as much as possible for the living. They’re going to need it now that Valjean’s gone. I hope at least Sister Simplice came to visit. Now on to nineteen days of Waterloo. God help us.